Home landscape 171 



can be had without the drawbacks of what I have called 

 the 'dismal avenue'. If the trees are grouped and 

 massed with some variety all the better; but in this sort 

 of avenue two mistakes are commonly made : the first 

 is cutting the face of the wood into hard hues. Very 

 often the edges of woods where avenues of this kind 

 are made are planted with rampant evergreen shrubs — 

 Laurel, Yew, Box, and Pontic Rhododendron. The 

 growth of such things after a few years is much more 

 rapid than people expect when planting them, and they 

 push out into the drive and obscure the air, light, and 

 shade. Many have not the courage to cut them right 

 out, but cut them back into hard, ugly, stiff lines instead, 

 which often conceals the beauty of the wood and cuts 

 off its light and shade and even air. Such planting 

 should be avoided as a border to the wood. The 

 dignity and stature of the trees that fringe the woodland 

 avenue should be clearly seen ; if possible there should 

 be a good Grass margin, and in wet districts the trees 

 should never be allowed to overshadow the drive. We 

 gain nothing by letting rank evergreens encroach on 

 the avenue, but in case we have them so encroaching 

 our proper course is to cut them away altogether. 

 A group of Box or Yew on a sandy knoll looks well 

 from a distance, but no good effect is got from things 

 of this kind encroaching on a drive. An attempt is 

 sometimes made to form a stiff line of trees along a 

 woodland drive — it may be Wellingtonia, Lombardy 

 Poplar, or any other trees. Any attempt at making a 

 sort of avenue effect in front of a wood is rarely 

 successful, and is not nearly so pretty as allowing the 

 wood to show its best effects of silvery stems of Birches 

 or great groups of Oaks, Ash, or Scotch Firs. 



